In all of America's 150 largest non-profits, there is not another executive who is paid 1/10th of what Roger Goodell is. Here's what that looks like — and how it got this way.

College presidents, hospital executives and heads of charities all operate services that aim to better the world. You might expect one of them to be the most compensated leader of a non-profit in the US.

Goodell's base salary is listed at $3.5 million with a $40.36 million bonus on the league's tax return.

EsquireRyan Ilano

His most recent total was an increase from the $29.49 million he earned according to the league's 2011 tax return that covered April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012.

It is difficult to say when Goodell became the most compensated leader since salary information for the person with the second-highest non-profit salary in 2012, Gary Radine, was not available. Radine's 2011 salary was $18,202,904 which was nearly $7 million more than the $11,554,000 million Goodell made in the same year.

The NFL claims that the lockout is the true cause of the $44.2 million total, telling SBD that $9.1 million of that total was deferred salary. Even then, unless Radine got a 300% raise—and there are no reports claiming he did—Goodell is still the highest paid head of a non-profit organization.

Goodell is lapping the field when it comes to salaries as his $29.49 million figure is almost triple the salary of the next head which was the $10.6 million that Joseph Trunfio earned during the 2012 calendar year at Atlantic Health Inc.

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We've compiled 150 of the highest earning non-profits using the publicly available 990 forms and we've compared his salary to each organization's top executive. Goodell's $29.49 million total in 2011 was more than ten times the average head's compensation. That total is also greater than the sum of the next five salaries. His total in 2012 is greater than the combined salaries of the next four heads. He also made more than all the school presidents included in the top 150 combined.

If you're wondering why the NFL is a non-profit in the first place, look at its modern origins. The AFL's survival in the early-to-mid '60s convinced NFL owners that the two leagues could merge together for the betterment of the owners in both leagues. Once the owners agreed to a merger, the only stumbling block that remained was Congress. A law needed to be passed in order to allow the NFL to be exempt from antitrust law.

After successfully lobbying two key Louisiana congressmen, the exemption was granted and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. The NFL was now allowed to function as a non-profit trade association for all its teams. For their trouble, the congressmen's home state was rewarded with a new franchise, the New Orleans Saints, one month after the bill was signed.

The two leagues created a combined championship game, which would come to be known as the Super Bowl. New television contracts were formed with CBS, NBC and, in a new venture, ABC would broadcast games on Monday night.

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The league's economics, its health issues and recent discriminatory workplace dramas provide a solid foundation to base a legal attack against the league's non-profit status. Senator Tom Coburn made that case in recent months, but there hasn't been much progress.

There are only four organizations included on the list that function primarily for sport. The Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino's Gary Palmer was the only one to not receive a seven-figure salary.

Coburn says there is no justification for the league to be tax-exempt. The taxman is not going to cripple the league by taking a small share of its extraordinary income.

So what's the point of letting the league function as-is? The league told USA Today that its function as a trade association justifies its standing. The NFL contends that all of the income it distributes to its 32 clubs, $4.3 billion, is taxable. But that's because the 32 clubs are for-profit.

The NFL functions as a 501(c) 6. Here's what that means according to the IRS:

A business league as an association of persons having a common business interest, whose purpose is to promote the common business interest and not to engage in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit. Its activities are directed to the improvement of business conditions of one or more lines of business rather than the performance of particular services for individual persons.

The second sentence is why the NFL describes itself in its 990 form as a "trade association promoting interests of its 32 member clubs."

But note the last bit of the first sentence: "to not to engage in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit." While the PGA Tour and NHL operate as non-profits under the same decree, the MLB, MLS and NBA are considered for-profit enterprises.

The NFL's sweetheart deal from the '70s is still paying off, and it's not helping anybody more than Roger Goodell.

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